I would not be opposed to devising a new system of pensions, in which one part was based on collective provision, but which also gave incentives for people to take out an additional, personal plan.
The countries that share this conception should be able to go further together, without excluding the others, since they can still live in a greater community of exchange and co-operation.
The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.
These days there are not enough of such intermediary groups, between the state and the individual, with the result that political leaders are often unduly guided by opinion polls.
The driving force behind the liberal counter-offensive in Europe has been a reaction against irresponsibility.
I had to think whether, after 50 years of hard slog, I was still lucid and fresh enough for the job.
The European model is in danger if we obliterate the principle of personal responsibility.
The European model is, first, a social and economic system founded on the role of the market, for no computer in the world can process information better than the market.
The problem with a purely collective system is not only that it requires economic growth, and the right sort of demographic trends, but that it prevents people thinking about their futures in a responsible way.
My presidential victory, if it had happened, would have been artificial in relation to the Socialist party. It may be that on my deathbed, I will come to regret my decision, but for the moment, I live at peace with it.
Even in Britain, the trade unions tell me that employment contracts have less protection than in the past.
